The present invention relates to a display controller and to a three dimensional (3D) display including such a controller. The present invention also relates to a method of reducing crosstalk, for instance between different views in a 3D display.
FIG. 1 of the accompanying drawings illustrates the layout of picture elements (pixels) of a standard type of liquid crystal device (LCD). The LCD is for use in a colour display and comprises red, green and blue pixels indicated by R, G and B. The pixels are arranged as columns Col 0 to Col 5 with the red, green and blue pixels being aligned vertically. Thus, the left-most column of pixels Col 0 displays the left-most strip of an image to be displayed, the adjacent column Col 1 to the right displays the next column of the image and so on.
As illustrated in FIG. 2a of the accompanying drawings, such an LCD may be used to form a 3D autostereoscopic display. The 3D display comprises an LCD 1 which acts as a spatial light modulator (SLM) for modulating light from a backlight 2. A parallax optic cooperates with the LCD 1 in order to form viewing windows. FIG. 2a illustrates a 3D autostereoscopic display of the front parallax barrier type in which the parallax optic comprises a parallax barrier 3. The parallax barrier 3 comprises a plurality of parallel vertically extending laterally evenly spaced slits such as 4, each of which is aligned with the middle of a pair of individual colour pixel columns. For instance, the slit indicated at 4 in FIG. 2a is aligned with a column 5 of blue pixels and a column 6 of green pixels.
FIG. 2b illustrates the viewing window structure for a two view autostereoscopic 3D display of the type shown in FIG. 2a. By spatially multiplexing two views forming a stereoscopic pair across the LCD 1, the left and right views are visible in viewing windows 7 such that, provided an observer is disposed such that the left eye is in a left viewing window L and the right eye is in a right viewing window R, a 3D image can be perceived. Such positions are referred to as orthoscopic positions and are illustrated at 8, 9 and 10 in FIG. 2b. 
FIG. 2b also illustrates pseudoscopic viewing positions 11 to 14. When the observer is in one of these positions, the left eye views the right eye image whereas the right eye views the left eye image. Such viewing positions should be avoided.
In order to ensure that the left and right viewing windows occur in the correct locations, left and right image data are supplied to an LCD of the type shown in FIG. 1 in the way illustrated in FIG. 3. The colour image data for the left-most strip of the left image are displayed by the red, green and blue pixels columns indicated at Col 0 Left. Similarly, the colour data for the left-most strip of the right eye view are displayed by the columns of pixels indicated at Col 0 Right. This arrangement ensures that the image data for the left and right views are sent to the appropriate left and right viewing windows. This arrangement also ensures that all three pixel colours R, G and B are used to display each view strip. Thus, as compared with the layout shown out in FIG. 1, the red and blue pixels of the left-most column display image data of the left view whereas the green pixels of the left-most column display image data of the right view. In the next column, the red and blue pixels display image data of the right view whereas the green pixels display image data of the left view. Thus, when using a standard LCD 1 of the type illustrated in FIGS. 1 to 3, interlacing of left and right view image data with xe2x80x9cswappingxe2x80x9d of the green components between columns of RGB pixels is necessary. Of course, depending upon the display set-up, the red or blue components rather than the green components may be swapped.
A standard PC (computer) is not capable of performing such interlacing and green (or red or blue) component swapping at standard video frame rate because every pixel xe2x80x9cwritexe2x80x9d operation has to be modified compared with displaying a two dimensional (2D) image in the standard layout illustrated in FIG. 1.
Autostereoscopic 3D displays using flat panel LCDs are disclosed in British patent application numbers 9619097.0 and 9702259.4, European patent publication numbers 724175, 696144,645926, 389842, and U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,553,203 and 5,264,946.
FIG. 4a of the accompanying drawings illustrates part of a known type of video board for use in computers. Examples of such video boards are disclosed in ARM VIDC20 Datasheet, Advanced Risc Machines Limited, February 1995, Fuchs et al, xe2x80x9cPixel planes: a VLSI-oriented design for a raster graphic enginexe2x80x9d, VLSI Design, third quarter 1981, pp 20-28, and Harrel et al, xe2x80x9cGraphic rendering architecture for a high performance desktop work stationxe2x80x9d, Proceedings of ACM Siggraph conference, 1993, pp 93-100. The general layout of such an arrangement is illustrated in FIG. 4a of the accompanying drawings. Data to be displayed are supplied in serial form on a data bus 20 and addresses defining screen locations for the pixels are supplied on an address bus 21. The data bus 20 is connected to the inputs of several banks of random access memories (two shown in the drawing) such as VRAMs 22 and 23. The address bus 21 is connected to a memory management system 24 which converts the screen addresses into memory addresses which are supplied to the address inputs of the memories 22 and 23.
Output ports of the memories 22 and 23 are connected via a latch circuit 30 to a first in first out (FIFO) register 25 of a video controller 26, which additionally comprises circuit 27 for supplying red (R), green (G), blue (B), horizontal synchronisation (H) and vertical synchronisation (V) signals to a display device. The memories 22 and 23 and the register 25 are controlled so that individual pixel data are read alternately from the memories 22 and 23 and supplied in the correct order to the circuit 27. The circuit 27, for instance, serialises the data and contains a colour pallet look up table (LUT) and digital-analogue converters (DAC). Timing signals for the video board are generated by a timing generator 28.
FIG. 4b illustrates the latch circuit 30 in more detail. The latch circuit 30 comprises latches 40 and 41 connected to the output ports of the memories 22 and 23, respectively. Each of the latches 40 and 41 comprises 32 one bit latches arranged as groups of eight for latching R, G, B and A data from the respective memory. The eight bits A are described hereinafter. The latches 40 and 41 have latch enable inputs connected together and to an output of the timing generator 28 supplying latch enable signals L.
The latch circuit 30 further comprises three switching circuits 42, 43 and 44, each of which comprises eight individual switching elements whose control inputs are connected together. The control inputs of the switching circuits 42, 43 and 44 are connected together and to an output of the timing generator 28 supplying a switching signal SW. The timing generator 28 has a further output supplying write enable signals F to the register 25.
FIG. 4c is a timing diagram illustrating the signals L, SW and F. These signals are synchronised by the timing generator 28 to the rest of the video board.
When new display data are available at the output ports of the memories 22 and 23, the latch enable signal L goes high, for instance as illustrated at time t1. The latches 40 and 41 thus latch the display data. Shortly after the latch enable signal L has returned to zero, the switching signal SW rises to a high level. At time t2 the switching circuits 42, 43 and 44 are switched to the state illustrated in FIG. 4b such that the RGB outputs of the latch 40 are connected to the register 25. At time t3 a write enable signal f is supplied to the register 25 so that the RGB data from the latch 40 are written into the register 25. At time t4, the write enable signal F is disabled so as to prevent further data from being written into the register 25 until the next write enable signal.
At time t5, the switching signal SW goes to the low level so that the switching circuits 42, 43 and 44 connect the outputs of the latch 41 to the register 25. A further write enable signal F occurs between times t6 and t7 so that the data from the latch 41 are written into the register 25.
The next latch enable signal L occurs at time t8 and the process repeated. Thus, data are written into the register 25 alternately from the registers 22 and 23.
The display device is notionally or physically divided into pixels and is of the scanned type. Image data for adjacent pixels are supplied consecutively to the display device and likewise lines of image data are supplied consecutively. The data rate required by the display device therefore depends on the frame or field rate, the number of display lines per frame or field, and the number of pixels per line. Standard video rates are typically 50 interlaced fields per second but can exceed this and may, for instance, be of the order of 70 or 100 interlaced fields or non-interlaced frames per second. Each frame typically comprises 600 lines and there are typically 800 pixels per line. Each colour component is typically encoded by 8 bits. Accordingly, the input serial data rate required by display devices can exceed the maximum output rate of available memory devices.
The arrangement shown in FIG. 4a allows increased data rates to be achieved by using multiple memories. With the two memories 22 and 23 illustrated, the maximum data rate for supplying image data to the display device is substantially equal to twice the rate at which each of the memories 22 and 23 can be read. Where two memories or two banks of memories are provided and pixel data are read alternately from the memories or memory banks, the image data are stored in the memories 22 or 23 as illustrated in FIG. 5 of the accompanying drawings. In particular, image data for the even pixel columns are stored in the memory 22 whereas image data for the odd pixel columns are stored in the memory 23.
It is also known to provide multiple video memories which are read simultaneously so as to increase the capacity or effective data rate for display devices. Examples of these techniques are disclosed Pinkham et al, xe2x80x9cVideo RAM Excels at Fast Graphicsxe2x80x9d, Electronic Design, Aug. 18, 1983, pp 160-172 and Whitton, xe2x80x9cMemory designed for raster graphics displays comxe2x80x9d, IEEE Computer Graphics and Applications March, 1984, pp 48-65.
A known type of video board memory system for stereoscopic displays is disclosed in Silicon Graphic Inc., xe2x80x9cReality engine in visual simulation: technical overviewxe2x80x9d, 1992. In this arrangement, memory is interleaved among parallel graphics processors and the processors are arranged such that they always process adjacent pixels. Stereoscopic images are supplied time sequentially to the display such that left and right eye views occupy alternate fields of each video frame.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,553,203 discloses a technique for producing spatially multiplexed images using five memory arrays. Two of the memory arrays are used for left and right eye image data. Another two of the arrays are used for copying the initial images processed by a spatial modulation function. The fifth memory array holds the spatially multiplexed image. Such an arrangement requires extra memory compared with a standard xe2x80x9cframe-bufferxe2x80x9d arrangement and so is substantially more expensive and has increased electrical power requirements.
JP8-146454 discloses a 3D display having a memory arrangement with allows left and right eye images to be preserved separately and rewritten at any time. A separate memory bank is used for each image.
According to a first aspect of the invention, there is provided a stereoscopic display controller for supplying serial picture element data to a scanned stereoscopic display, where each picture element comprises image data for M colour components, where M is greater than one, the display controller comprising:
N memories, where N is an integer greater than one;
a memory controller arranged to write picture element data for N different views of a three dimensional image in respective ones of the memories, and arranged to control reading of the memories in turn so that image data for consecutively scanned picture elements of the display are read from different ones of the memories; and
a data reordering circuit coupled to outputs of said memories and arranged to reorder image data for at least one of said colour components.
N may be equal to two. Each picture element of image data may comprise image data for M colour components, where M is greater than one, and the display controller may comprise a data reordering circuit for simultaneously supplying image data of at least one first colour component and image data of at least one second colour component different from the first colour component for consecutively scanned picture elements of the display. M may be equal to three. The at least one first colour component may comprise red and blue colour components and the at least one second colour component may comprise a green colour component.
The display controller may be arranged such that each picture element written to a memory is a multi-bit word comprising a portion for each colour component. Alternatively, each said picture element written to a memory may be a codeword, the display controller comprising a codeword converter coupled between the data reordering circuit and said memory outputs for converting codewords into respective multi-bit words each comprising a portion for each colour component.
The data reordering circuit of the display controller may be arranged to interchange picture elements read from different memories for said at least one colour component. Alternatively, the data reordering circuit may be arranged to delay picture elements read from each of said memories for said at least one colour component by one picture element.
The memory controller may be arranged to replicate picture element data for a two dimensional image in corresponding memory locations of the memories.
Each of the memories may comprise at least one memory device.
The display controller may comprise a latch for receiving output data from the memories.
The display controller may comprise a first in first out circuit for receiving output data from the memories.
According to a second aspect of the invention, there is provided a three dimensional display comprising a display controller according to the first aspect of the invention, a scanned stereoscopic display having a plurality of columns of picture elements, and a parallax optic having a plurality of parallax elements, each of which is associated with N adjacent columns of the picture elements.
According to a third aspect of the present invention, there is provided a method of supplying serial picture element data corresponding to N different views of a three dimensional image, to a scanned stereoscopic display, the method comprising delaying picture elements associated with a first colour component by one picture element relative to picture elements of the other colour component(s).
Preferably, picture element data for said N views is written to respective ones of N different memories, and consecutively scanned picture elements are read from each of said memories. Thereafter said step of delaying picture elements associated with a first colour component for each read picture element stream is carried out.
According to a fourth aspect of the present invention, there is provided a stereoscopic display controller for supplying serial picture element data corresponding to N different views of a three dimensional image, to a scanned stereoscopic display, the controller being arranged to delay picture elements associated with a first colour component by one picture element relative to picture elements of the other colour component(s).
According to a fifth aspect of the present invention, there is provided a three dimensional display comprising a display controller according to the above fourth aspect of the present invention, a scanned stereoscopic display having a plurality columns of picture elements, and a parallax optic having a plurality of parallax elements, each of which is associated with N adjacent columns of the picture elements.
A problem which can adversely affect stereoscopic displays is crosstalk. Crosstalk is generated by stray light leaking between two xe2x80x9cviewing channelsxe2x80x9d. This results from several factors including scattering and diffraction by optical elements of display devices. The result is that the observer receives some of the left image with the right eye and vice versa. This appears as a low intensity image in the background and is often referred to as a ghost image. Crosstalk is undesirable as it is not a natural phenomenon and distracts the observer and causes visual stress. This problem is addressed in the article xe2x80x9cReducing Crosstalk Between Stereoscopic Displaysxe2x80x9d, SPIE Vol.2177, pp. 92-95.
According to a sixth aspect of the invention, there is provided a method of reducing crosstalk between first and second images defined by respective sets of picture elements, to produce respective sets of crosstalk corrected picture elements, the method comprising:
adding a grey level to the first image to form a first sum;
adding said grey level to the second image to form a second sum;
subtracting from the first sum an amount equal to a given fraction of said second image; and
subtracting from the second sum an amount equal to the given fraction of said first image,
wherein these steps comprise the calculation of a partial result which is used to determine crosstalk corrected picture elements for both the first and second images.
Preferably, each picture element comprises M colour components having an intensity value, and the method further comprises, for an intensity level Ix of each of the picture elements of said first image, determining a crosstalk corrected picture intensity level Iox according to:       I    ox    =            I      x        +                  K        ⁢                  (                                    I              m                        -                          I              x                        -                          I              y                        -            1                    )                            (                              I            m                    +          1                )            
or an equivalent form thereof and
for an intensity level Iy of each of the picture elements of said second image, determining a crosstalk corrected picture intensity level Ioy according to:       I    oy    =            I      y        +                  K        ⁢                  (                                    I              m                        -                          I              x                        -                          I              y                        -            1                    )                            (                              I            m                    +          1                )            
or an equivalent form thereof,
where
K is the scalar crosstalk correction; and
Im is the scalar maximum value of each colour component.
More preferably, the division operation in the preceding equation is implemented using a bit-shift operation. By restricting K to being a factor of 2, Ioy may be easily computed using hardware components.
Preferably, the partial result used to determine crosstalk corrected picture elements is:
K(Imxe2x88x92Ixxe2x88x92Iy xe2x88x921)
It is possible to provide a display controller by modifying standard video display systems by using interleaved memory banks in order to permit interlacing of columns or vertical strips of left and right colour stereoscopic image pixel data. Interlacing is performed as the image data for the individual pixels are written to the memories. Data output from the memories may be processed when necessary in order to perform swapping of colour components, for instance to achieve the correct left and right image interlacing for flat panel displays.
The stereo image interlacing can be implemented in hardware with a simple addition to the widely used multi-bank video memory architecture. This has significant commercial advantages in requiring only small changes to existing video circuit designs in order to drive autostereoscopic displays. Further, it is not necessary to provide extra memory, for instance in image generating computers. This results in lower numbers of integrated circuits, smaller board sizes and reduced power consumption compared with known arrangements for generating and displaying 3D images.
Interlacing of stereo images can be performed with minimal extra time penalties in software. Thus, no substantial increase in processing time and memory capacity is needed.
It is possible to display 2D images, 3D images or mixtures of the two simultaneously on the display.
It is also possible to provide a technique for reducing crosstalk between images by means of an algorithm which requires little additional processing time. Thus, higher quality images can be produced with reduced visual stress to an observer and with no substantial increase in the number of integrated circuits and the power consumption.
According to a seventh aspect of the present invention there is provided a stereoscopic display controller for supplying picture element data for N different views to a scanned stereoscopic display, the controller comprising:
a memory comprising a two-dimensional array of memory elements mapped to pixels of the stereoscopic display;
a memory controller arranged to write picture element data for each said image into a contiguous block of memory elements and to read picture element data from the memory row by row;
at least one buffer for receiving at least a part of each row as it is read from the memory;
a first data reordering circuit for reordering picture element data contained in the buffer, and any data read from the memory but not contained in the buffer, to provide a stream of picture element data in which the N views are interlaced; and
a second data reordering circuit arranged to receive said data stream and to reorder picture element data for at least one of said colour components.
Preferably, the memory controller is arranged to write picture element data for each image so that the data occupies a set of adjacent columns of memory elements.
Preferably, the memory is provided by a single memory device. Alternatively however, the memory may be provided by a plurality of memory devices.
In certain embodiments of the present invention said buffer is arranged to store the first half of a row of picture element data read from the memory. The first data reordering circuit is then arranged to interleave the buffered picture element data with the picture element data of the second half of the same row of picture elements as the second half of the row is read from the memory.
In other embodiments of the invention, said buffer comprises first and second buffers each arranged to store a full row of memory elements. The memory controller is arranged to write rows of picture element data alternately into the first and second buffers, whilst said first data reordering circuit is arranged to interleave the picture element data in one of the first and second buffers whilst data is being read into the other. More preferably, each of the first and second buffers comprises a pair of half row buffers.
The invention will be further described, by way of example with reference to the accompanying drawings, in which: